Taugeh Hijau

I was at Family Store buying my vegetables for the week, there wasn't a great selection because it was Sunday and the Family Store by my house gets really busy on Saturday and to a lesser degree Sunday morning. So by the time I rolled in there, the selection was pretty grim. I got what I could and looked for anything else that might be worth buying. I saw this small packet of some cute little greens called Taugeh Hijau so I put it in my basket.

The Taugeh Hijau sat in my crisper for a day or two and then I noticed it and thought I better do something with it before it spoiled. I looked online and found "green bean sprouts" for one translation and on a blog another suggestion that Taugeh Hijau might also mean snow pea sprouts or pea sprouts, that they are the greens for peas. The Taugeh Hijau I bought looked kind of like other pea sprouts images. It seems they are usually cooked in Asia. I didn’t need to look at the recipes, I could tell by the finished products that it’s more of that stirfry-lightly or blanch them type of preparation done here so often in Asia especially Malaysia... similar to the preparation the baby ferns I recently prepared and other greens.

But I was serving cold chicken and vegetable pasta for dinner and so cooking these didn’t appeal to me, I thought maybe I could add the sprouts to the top of the salad raw. I found one entry online that said they could be both cooked or served raw and that raw they tasted good. So I tried a stem. Sure enough, it tasted good. In fact it tasted an awful lot like alfalfa sprouts which I love and aren’t available at family store and are quite expensive when they are available at Jusco. So here I have another sprout alternative! R was skeptical but I cleaned them and placed them on top of the pasta salad. Guess what, he liked them and I did too. Very nice taste and cool texture- a crisp bite in the mouth and it made the salad look pretty fancy.

I’m going to have to get them again and try cooking them too.

Pucuk Paku: Wild Fern Shoots

Once in a while I see large clumps of this frilly green at Family Store near my house in Seremban. I've been curious what to do with them and figured that they are eaten like the many other kinds of 'greens' that I find in the stores and Wet Market here in Seremban. Recently while at the store I saw a fresh carton of these great greens just begging to be bought. So I brought a bunch home and started searching online. It turns out they are Fern which makes sense because they look a bit like ferns. It seems there are various kinds of fern and they are mainly referred to as Fiddlehead Fern. Only most of the photos online and the recipes seem to call for Fiddlehead Ferns that look chunkier than the Fern I bought at Family Store. It seems that these are popular in the US, but I never saw them in New York when I lived there, ever. Nor do I remember eating them in a restaurant. Actually, the thicker swirls look pretty damn cool!

Nevertheless, I had these thin ones, and so I needed to find out how to cook them. The best way to search is to use the Malay name obtainable from the Family Store label. Here it said Pucuk Paku. I was searching recipes and actually found a blog from a guy named Sham in Kuala Lumpur who is from Negeri Sembilan (the state in which Seremban is located); his blog is a joint deal with his mother together they post traditional Malay cooking with emphasis on Negeri Sembilan style! They post a recipe for Goreng Pucuk Paku (Fried Wild Fern Shoots) here.

I thought since I was in Negeri Sembilan and had some Pucuk Paku I better use his recipe which he describes as, "This one is really an easy one. I'm not that much of a vegetable eater but this is definitely one of my favourite vegetable dish. Very Negeri Sembilan... I think lah. I think you can get the wild fern shoots from any good wet market here. Bibik did the shopping for this and also the cooking for this dish. So enjoy!"

But, I didn't have either of the anchovy ingredients so I just sauteed the fern with minced garlic, hot chili, salt and pepper in olive oil. They tasted great! R ate them right out of the pan on the stove! He called them addictive. I didn't do that good of a job at separating the thicker stems from the lightweight fern parts and so the stems were a bit too crunchy and the fern a bit over cooked. Next time I'll do better...

Making Homemade Bread in Malaysia

My first ever home baked bread sitting on willow pattern dinner plate

Yesterday I happened into the Bakery Supply Store located in Seremban in the small storefronts across from the Specialist Hospital. The Bakery Store has a few things that the other stores in Seremban don’t stock. Yesterday the Yeast section caught my eye which I must have missed last time I was there. I opted to buy Saf-Instant Levure Seche de Boulanger Dry Baker's Yeast in the small packets because I wasn’t sure if it was the right kind of yeast that I am used to in the States. I came home excited that I’m going to be able to make pizza crust with the yeast. So I am looking online and find that Saf-Instant made in France is one of the best Yeast brands world wide. It makes sense, the French do make good bread afterall! The Saf-Instant site explained this was the instant kind of yeast, which I’ve never used. The Seremban bakery store had some of the other Saf products available too, including larger size bags.

So as I am searching how much yeast to use to make pizza dough with the Saf-Instant product I came across some bread recipes. And then I found lots of blogs talking about Jim Lahey's, owner of Sullivan St. Bakery in New York City, ‘revolutionary’ home baked bread recipe which was featured in the NYTimes in 2006 here. Apparently, everyone in the US has since been baking this home bread recipe of his in their ovens at home. Well, I left NYC in early 2006 so I missed the article and knew nothing to date of the home bread craze going on since. Although I can say I have had some of Sullivan St. Bakery’s bread when I lived in NY and it was fantastic. It’s the kind of ‘gourment’ bread that’s been so popular in NY since the 90s and I would buy this kind of bread often (also to note this bread was always expensive starting at something like $4.00 per loaf and going up up up). One of the big bummers, in my opinion, of Malaysian foods is their bread selection. And Seremban has an even poorer selection than KL. So, I was thrilled, thrilled! to find a recipe to make this crispy type crust bread here in Malaysia.

So yesterday I started looking at the recipes online and other versions, but opted to start by making the original Jim Lahey recipe in the NYTimes figuring I could adapt it later. The only thing I needed was some kind of cooking vessel for cooking the bread inside the oven. I had seen some clay pots at the Family Store near my house, and I was fairly sure they would still be there. So last night I made the bread dough because it needed to sit out for 12 or more hours before the next step.

This morning the dough had increased in size and I went to Family Store and picked up a clay pot. Large in size it nearly fills the height of the oven. Based on Jim’s recipe I think I could have gone for a smaller clay pot, but the next size down there were only two at the store and the covers didn’t fit right on the top of the pots. So I went with the big one at 16.90RM (yes that’s under $6 US). I wasn’t sure if the clay pot was oven safe but for $6 bucks figured I’d give it a shot.... as my mouth was really starting to water for some of that bread.

Inside of this Clay Pot is glazed

Came home and did the whole recipe as called for. I think it was a success, the pot didn’t break or crack and the bread turned out good, there is some room for improvement both for taste and making the process simpler and less messy. R thought the bread could be more spongy and I agree, but overall not a bad loaf for about 30 cents (US). Oh, I might watch Family Store and see if they get any more of the smaller size clay pots, I would buy two so I can fit two of them in the oven at the same time and hence be able to bake two bread loafs at a time. One bad thing about this whole process is the heat from the oven in the house, like it’s not already hot in Malaysia!!!! So cutting down on the time the heat is on is a good thing and baking two loafs at once is better than two in a row.

Having a Cat in Malaysia

T sitting on his favorite chair in the Guest Room (chair is Ikea Snille)

T is around 9 months old now and we enjoy having him in our lives. We found him through Petfinder which is one of the better ways to find a pet in Malaysia. He has already had all of his booster shots (35rm per shot) and has been fixed (operation was around 140rm). I've spent time since September when he arrived finding different cat products, often times finding little selection at high cost. Relatively speaking the cost of having an animal in Malaysia seems higher in proportion to in the US in terms of cost of living.

One of the first things I searched for was good quality cat food. The imported brands like Science Diet and Blackwood and others are grossly overpriced. And I worry, as I have with food we buy for ourselves, about imported dry food. Even when the expiration date is far off, sometimes food like cereals gets stale very fast. Not to mention the possibility of bugs getting the product. So when I see that over 100rm bag of gourmet cat food sitting on the floor of the small and not really visited pet store in Seremban, I'm a bit skeptical. So what to buy? Jusco and Family Store have a number of brands of soft and dry cat food. Some are asian brands that I'm not familiar with. I tried a few of these as well as the Purina brand which I am familiar with. Sure, not a great brand in the US, but at least reputable. Purina foods here seem to pay more attention to nutrition and the food meets the standard set by the American Association of Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) as noted on their products.

So T gets the Friskies hard food at 14.99rm for a 1.5 kg bag. (this price is Family store, Cold Storage in Mid-Valley was charging nearly 18rm per bag and Jusco charges 17rm).

T also gets soft food. What is strange about the soft food selections in Malaysia is that nearly all of them are fish based... Tuna being the most popular, then all sorts of mackerel mixtures. T's favorite by far is Purina's Seafood Platter in Prawn Jelly! The cans come in 400g size and are 3.90rm each at Family Store. The serving suggestions on the back of the can are crazy though.... they suggest a cat the size of T or bigger should eat two full 400g cans of this fish a day!!! T is already battling not being overweight, I imagine how big his belly would get eating this much fish a day.

Cat Litter is also expensive here. A small bag of Tidy Cat (which you know isn't that great) is about 15rm. The fancier brands and clump kinds can run up to 26rm per bag!!!

What else have I noticed so far, well, I'm pretty turned off by the Vets here in Seremban, if we had a real medical issue with T I think we'd have to drive to the big state of the art Vet hospital closer to KL (I forget the name) because from what I have seen at three vets in Seremban, the medical is pretty sad for animals.

Oh another thing that is really interesting... Many many people cage their cats here in Malaysia in big 3 feet or 4 feet cages. I started seeing it on Petfinder and also other places. It's true most houses that have a cat also have a cat cage where the cat spends some or all of its time. I hate this and I couldn't understand why. Well, after having T for awhile I now understand why. I think it's because most Malaysian homes do not have screens on the windows. Therefore, the cats would escape and unless an owner didn't mind their cat being outside (to mix with strays, dogs and even other creatures like monitor lizards or snakes!) then the owner would have to cage if they wanted to keep the windows open. I still won't buy a cage, and our house is big enough that T can be closed off in a room for short periods. Otherwise, I bought a leash for him to put on when the patio doors are open and we are near the patio. He loves to go out on his leash. But guess what? Malaysian pet stores don't really sell yard leashes only short dog leashes for walking a dog. I had to have the yard leash mailed from the US... along with some cat toys.

Galangal Rhizome

When I go to the Seremban Wet Market or Family Store, I often see lots of Root type plants for sale. Sometimes they are marked with what the item is but most often not. Ginger Root looks different than Tumeric and Galangal and there are others to be explored too. But for now, about Galangal, because I finally bought some. This is not technically a root but a Rhizome. The name for it in Malay is Lengkuas. I always see these rhizomes in the corner of the refrigerated section at Family Store so on my last visit I asked one of the employees if it was ginger, and he said, "No!" Grabbed the piece I brought over to show him, walked back to the refrigerator and threw it back in the pile. So I nodded at him and went about picking out my fruits and vegetables. But I couldn't let it pass. I had to know what that was, so I went back to the pile, took a smallish piece and had it weighed. For 1.11 RM I got myself a piece of something marked "Lengkuas".

Image of Galangal I bought after I used the center part

I went home and started to search Lengkuas and found out that it is Galangal. Something I had never heard of. Galangal, as I've read, has different kinds of plants. I'm fairly sure what I bought is the Greater Galangal (Alpinia galanga) which is commonly used for cooking especially in Thailand. The Lesser Galangal (Alpinia officinarum) is the 'rarer' type often used for chinese medicine. Then again, there is a third type called Kaempferia Galanga that is also used for Chinese medicine and cooking... worse is that all of these are known by multiple names which often get confused.

The rhizome isn't that popular in the West. It can be found in Asian food stores often dried, or fresh rhizomes can be found in better markets.

So I checked online what to do with this. I tried putting some chopped up pieces in stir-fry. I thought it was good, it has a much more earthy and spicy smell to it than ginger. It reminds me of Christmas Potpourri or some kind of Christmas spice mix (at least that's what the smell evokes for me). R didn't like the stuff in his stir-fry that much. He said he thinks ginger is better.

I had extra Galangal left and I didnt know what to do with it, so I made Chai this morning with it. It's the first time I ever made Chai... and it was great. I followed Veg Recipes of India's blog recipe here except I didn't have any lemongrass, so I made it without. It was actually one of the best Chai's I've ever tasted, and I made it!!!! Very rich and spicy. I read on other sites on the web that Galangal when drank as a tea can give you a very relaxed feeling and hightened perception. I have to say, the stuff totally relaxed me and did do something to my perception. It was a very relaxing pleasant feeling after drinking that tea. I'll have to make some more.

The Cost of Eggs in Malaysia

I wanted to write a post on the cost of eggs here in Malaysia. So I photographed the egg carton which is the eggs I recently bought at Family Store for 3.80 RM. The eggs cartons here come with 10 not 12 eggs per pack. So I always find myself running short faster because the 10 carton looks almost like a dozen. Then there is the size of Malaysia eggs. In stores like Family Store and Jusco, they all look about the same and run from high 3 RM to nearly 5 RM for the 10. I never bother to look at the package too well and so I missed on the package above for the LH Egg brand that these are medium size eggs. And medium they are. Both R and I have commented in the past on how small the eggs are sometimes. No only for LH Brand but Malaysian Eggs in general.

So I went back to Family Store looking for Large eggs and couldn't find any carton that were marked "Large". Although this Happy Egg brand lists CLASS A on the package so I thought they might be bigger, and they are "lower cholesterol". This is up a step from LH's marketing of "No Harmful Residues"! But the price is higher at 4.20 RM.

First one more stop before I made this post to a storefront within walking distance of my house.... Yoong Sing Trading Shop selling fresh eggs. The guy there was very nice and told me these eggs come from Melacca.

He has them all Graded and the Grade A eggs cost 3.40 RM for 10. So I bought 10 of them.

He also talked me into testing 2 of these white eggs at .50 RM each as he said they are, "The best!" I asked why but he couldn't give me an answer. I asked him if they were chicken eggs and he nodded, but I'm not sure he understood me for sure. Their slightly elongated length makes me wonder if they are some other type of egg. And I wonder, are they costing more because they are white in color? In the states, the brown cost more as white are the common stock. Here, brown are the common eggs. I will have to try them for taste and report back.

Egg on Left from Yoong Sing Trading, Egg in Center Happy Egg, Egg on Right LH Egg

In terms of size though, Yoong Sing Trading' s Grade A Egg above is the largest in size of the three brands and is the lowest price. LH Egg is clearly the loser. I've learned all eggs are not the same around here and going to the specialty store is worth the extra time.

Broccoli in Malaysia

Head of Broccoli from Family Store at 1.86 RM (about 60 cents in US dollars).

Tangerines in Malaysia

The Family Store in Seremban had this big box of small size Tangerines (I think that is what they are?). I've seen boxes like this around Chinese New Year. Inside the box each piece of fruit is wrapped in orange plastic and the fruits are given out in local stores to customers and other places. The box cost 10.90 RM about $3.50 US Dollars.

Green Peppers in Malaysia

Green Peppers from Family Store. Cost 3.20 RM (just over one US Dollar).

Cost of Beans in Malaysia

Here are some fresh beans purchased at the Seremban Family Store. The Yard Long Beans

(Vigna unguiculata subsp. sesquipedalis) above at 1.79 RM (currently about 57 cents in US Dollars) for the bunch. R prefers these in his stir-fry while I like the smaller 'French' Beans below as I think the Yard Long Beans taste a bit rubbery when cooked. Nevertheless, I like to use them because I cut them about 6 inches long so they have a nice long shape which adds a nice dimension to the dishes.

The 'French' Beans cost 2.31 RM (currently about 74 cents in US Dollars) per bag.